Teddy (Part 3)

Last time I talked about how Ted reconnected with Elizabeth, a woman he'd known as a teenager (I'm going to start referring to her as "E" to easy my typing burden).

After kicking out her abusive boyfriend, E moved Teddy from Bay St. Louis, MS to live with her in  her Thibodaux, LA home, and they started a not entirely smooth process of learning how to live together and pursuing her vision of "homesteading" on the land (a vision that Ted adopted, I am unclear how much of that was him wanting to please her, and how much was his own genuine inclination).

Through all this Ted kept up communication with me, somewhat to E's displeasure. For my part, I wanted him, but was willing to step aside because I loved him enough to want him to have the girl "that got away", his self professed first real love. Ted short-circuited any gestures I made to back away, always emphasizing how he wanted me to be a part of what he and E. were creating. 

Ted's health wasn't the best, he frequently had bad days where he was woozy and fatigued, though he could generally muster through the activities of daily living. He did not generally like or trust doctors and avoided seeking formal medical care, preferring to medicate himself using marijuana, THC, Delta8, and other cannabinoids, along with some medications that he'd discovered beneficial and managed to finagle out of some lingering health care he had obtained while living in California with his brother Nick. 

Ted often complained to me about how poorly he felt, it appeared to me that E was oblivious to much of his health needs and limitations, often encouraging (nigh coercing) him into doing work on land that pushed him past his limits. 

Regardless, Ted made what efforts he could and ultimately together, they weathered hurricane Ida and its aftermath without electricity for a couple of weeks. 

Ted told me of arguments they had and how he sometimes wanted to return to his life in Bay St. Louis without her, but they always seemed to patch things up. He also told me about good times they shared, so it was not unremittingly grim for him. 

This was the pattern of our lives for the couple of months, then October rolled around. 

More to come...